Did It Arrive?

KUALA LUMPUR: AS Malaysian Defence writes this, there is no word of the arrival of the first two Sukhoi Su-30MKM Super Flanker to the RMAF air base in Gong Kedak, Kelantan.

Both planes, the first two of 18 examples, were supposed to arrive on Father’s Day 2007 on board an Antonov cargo plane.

Perhaps the planes did arrive but the usual Malaysian un-due concern over secrets prevented the media from covering the arrival of the two Flankers.

I remember when the Hornets arrived in Butterworth in the late 90s, reporters and photographers who had waited outside the gates were detained by RMAF Provost.

The photographers were forced to hand over their negatives. It remained hazardous to take pictures outside RMAF airbase to this day.

Why are they doing this? Mostly due to ignorance and simply lack of brain matter on the part of the higher ranking group. They still believed that our “neighbours” used the media to find out about our military capabilities.

Actually the only people who are always kept in the dark, even in this Super Flanker arrival, are the Malaysian public, who infact helped fund the purchase.

For any other military, it is just a matter of downloading a satellite picture or more low tech, listening to an air band scanner.

Since the Russian plane need to fly over China, Vietnam, Mongolia and Cambodia, any one in those countries could listened in to the pilots with the air traffic controllers along the route.

Perhaps the arrival will be reported in tomorrow’s newspaper. A two paragraph story for something our whole existence as a nation rests upon.